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Incidents: licensing and closure of outlets
Each incident is a dated action by a government, an official, a regulator, a court or a legislature that limited journalists' ability to gather or publish news.
21 incidents match this view.
| Date | Incident | Country | Tactic | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|
| December 15, 2025 | China (Hong Kong): conviction and 20-year sentence of the media owner Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law, 2025 to 2026 | Hong Kong | Detention and violence | John Lee | Sustained (February 8, 2026) |
| September 17, 2025 | United States: Federal Communications Commission chairman's remarks and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, September 2025 | United States | Funding and ownership pressure | Donald Trump | Reversed (September 23, 2025) |
| September 3, 2025 | Ethiopia arrests at least six journalists including Sheger FM staff over election-year coverage | Ethiopia | Detention and violence | Abiy Ahmed | Ongoing (September 22, 2025) |
| January 29, 2025 | Pakistan amends cybercrime law to create new agency policing 'fake' online content | Pakistan | Official labels | Shehbaz Sharif | Sustained |
| June 20, 2024 | Slovakia's parliament dissolves public broadcaster RTVS, replaces it with STVR | Slovakia | Licensing and closure of outlets | Robert Fico | Sustained (July 4, 2024) |
| March 4, 2024 | Milei's government shuts down Argentina's state news agency Telam | Argentina | Funding and ownership pressure | Javier Milei | Sustained |
| March 8, 2021 | Myanmar junta revokes five outlets' licenses and raids newsrooms after coup | Myanmar | Licensing and closure of outlets | Min Aung Hlaing | Sustained |
| March 16, 2018 | Tanzania requires bloggers and online publishers to register and pay an annual government fee | Tanzania | Licensing and closure of outlets | John Magufuli | Unknown (April 12, 2018) |
| September 4, 2017 | Cambodia's government forces the closure of The Cambodia Daily with a disputed multimillion-dollar tax bill | Cambodia | Licensing and closure of outlets | Hun Sen | Sustained (September 4, 2017) |
| July 27, 2016 | Turkey closes more than 100 media outlets by decree after a failed coup attempt | Türkiye | Licensing and closure of outlets | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Sustained (December 31, 2016) |
| December 21, 2010 | Hungary's parliament gives a government-appointed media council power to fine outlets for unbalanced coverage | Hungary | Funding and ownership pressure | Viktor Orban | Sustained (January 1, 2011) |
| March 15, 2002 | Zimbabwe enacts a law requiring all journalists and media houses to hold government licenses | Zimbabwe | Licensing and closure of outlets | Robert Mugabe | Unknown |
| April 14, 2001 | State-controlled Gazprom takes formal control of Russia's independent NTV television network | Russia | Funding and ownership pressure | Vladimir Putin | Sustained (April 14, 2001) |
| October 1988 | United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices | United Kingdom | Licensing and closure of outlets | Margaret Thatcher | Reversed (September 16, 1994) |
| July 31, 1980 | South Korea's martial-law government purges journalists who resisted press controls | South Korea | Licensing and closure of outlets | Chun Doo-hwan | Reversed (June 1, 1987) |
| June 26, 1975 | India imposes pre-press controls on every newspaper during the 1975 Emergency | India | Prior restraint | Indira Gandhi | Reversed (March 21, 1977) |
| May 24, 1960 | Egypt's Nasser government nationalizes every newspaper and magazine in the country | Egypt | Funding and ownership pressure | Gamal Abdel Nasser | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) |
| March 17, 1950 | South Africa's Suppression of Communism Act lets the government ban publications and restrict individuals | South Africa | Prior restraint | Daniel François Malan | Reversed (February 2, 1990) |
| 1939 | Brazil's Vargas government creates a state messaging department with broad press powers | Brazil | Licensing and closure of outlets | Getúlio Vargas | Reversed (January 1, 1945) |
| October 4, 1933 | Nazi Germany's Editors Law bars Jewish journalists from the press and puts editors under state direction | Germany | Credential control | Adolf Hitler | Reversed (May 8, 1945) |
| 1922 | Soviet Russia creates Glavlit, a central office to review all printed material before publication | Russia | Prior restraint | Vladimir Lenin | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) |
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